Yesterday our charming Klara had her first birthday and celebrated in her new ball pool, slightly bruised from having climbed everything and from learning to walk a bit.
A lot of people ask me what she eats. The simple answer is that she sits at the kitchen table with us and eats the same food. However she gets a bit more slow carbs (e.g. more fruit and some more root vegetables, potatoes and berries). A very liberal LCHF diet. Also she still breast feeds once in a while.
Without much planning the entire year has passed without a single can of baby food, or any of the grain-based gruel or porridge that are popular in Sweden. In fact she has hardly eaten anything with flour in it.
In Sweden we get insistent advice to feed babies industrial porridge with added iron. We ignored that, seemingly without any negative effects. Klara gets her iron from real food like meat and vegetables. Personally I wonder if porridge with added iron could result in constipation. That is the most common side effect of iron supplementation to adults.
So how is Klara developing after a low carb pregnancy and one year without processed sugar and almost completely without grains? Just fine. She just learned to walk and she’s been talking a bit since she was 8-9 months old. Now she says quite a few words. She’s way above average in both weight and height. And she’s full of energy and almost always happy (something that’s frequently commented on by other parents).
Yes, I’m a proud dad.
There was no cake baked on flour at her first birthday. But Klara seemed completely satisfied with a fruit salad and real whipped cream.
What do you think about a liberal LCHF diet for kids?
PS: The only supplement she gets apart from good food is vitamin D, every single day. About twice the recommended dose, 800 – 1000 units per day.
PS2: Here are recent reports on more kids raised by low-carbing doctors: Jay Wortman’s two kids and Peter Attia’s daughter.
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We have our son on a very strict LCHF diet. He's been eating this way since he was 3.5 (now 7) when we suspected he had autism. Within a month he went from 2 word utterances to speaking in full sentences, he started looking us in the eye and holding our hands when we would go for walks instead of ignoring us and pushing us away. His agressive behaviours stopped and he was a happy, healthy child. In short, we got our son back. It's been nothing short of a miracle.
Since we live in Sweden and would normally be forced to allow the daycare/schools feed our son during the day, we needed a diagnosis for him to receive different food. So we agreed to allow him to go back to eating a "normal" diet for 4 months so he could be diagnosed. Those were the worst 4 months of our lives. Our son, who had almost no outward symptoms of autism was now spinning, banging his head, lining up toys and having several meltdowns a day. He was difficult to talk to and life was generally hard on whole family. It was heartbreaking. He, of course, received the diagnosis and we are now 'allowed' to provide all his food for school. Back on his special diet - very strict LCHF - his symptoms are gone again and he is a happy, pleasant boy who concentrates very well at school.
Do I believe in LCHF diets for children? I believe they are essential.